At work with Alison: Advantage Health and Wellness

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WDTV) - When Dr. Kevin Trembush, owner of Advantage Health and Wellness in Morgantown, was 17 years old, he began experiencing sports-related back pain.

Doctors prescribed him pills, "But nothing was working," he said.

Eventually, he ended up in a chiropractor's office.

"Almost instantly I could tell he corrected what was wrong and that got me started thinking about health care in a way that I could do what this chiropractor was doing—helping people with his hands," said Trembush.

Just like other medical professionals, becoming a chiropractor requires years of study—four years of undergrad and four more years in chiropractic school.

"The chiropractor's hands are taught over years to be able to feel the different joints of the spine and how they move, and if there's swelling or spasm around them."

Once the chiropractor finds the problem they proceed with the adjustment which consists of high velocity, low impact thrusts with the hands to move the joint back into place.

"Find the problem and be able to specifically remove that problem and let the body start to function better," he said.

Trembush says chiropractic medicine and physical therapy are a positive alternative to pills and could be one solution to solving the opioid abuse problem that plagues the mountain state.

"This can help them in a way that...improve's their quality of life and can keep them from having to take these mind-numbing opioids."

One of the most difficult parts of the job is having to combat the common assumption that chiropractic medicine isn't a legitimate treatment option.

"Chiropractors have something to offer and, for the most part, are good doctors who can really help people," he said.

However, Trembush says the reward of helping patients be "pain-free" is worth dealing with naysayers.

"And when they first start to get the realization in their mind [that this works], you can see it in their face and in their body language that they understand more and they have hope."

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